Nina

After the big hoo-ha about how bad this film is, in particular because of Zoe Saldana's casting, I decided to give this movie a shot.

I know virtually nothing about Nina Simone's life, but this film does not want to portray what her life was during her prime. Instead it relies on itty bitty pieces of dialogue during interviews and conversations with Nina's old friend Richard Pryor. It is set during the last decade of her life, when she is mentally ill, unstably alcoholic and very difficult to tolerate. Clifton (David Oyelowo), the nurse at the mental hospital where she is interred, takes her in, looks after her and eventually becomes her manager.

The real problem with this movie is, glaringly, the time period of Nina's life. It's not a good one, and very little happens in the movie. We start her off as a little girl defying racial segregation so that her parents can sit in the front row. Nothing else is shown of her rise to fame and struggles, which makes the film feel very empty.

One thing I really didn't like is the erasure of Clifton's homosexuality. Although he and Nina are not seen intimate with each other (at one point she calls him the F word when he refuses to have sex with her) there is a small implication. Why couldn't they show everyone he was gay?

The last thing is of course Zoe Saldana as Nina. I personally feel the criticism (and it was extremely scornful) was very unfair. She did the best with what she was given, and she should be praised for it. The problem is not the color of her skin, its the age. She is supposed to be in her sixties, and yet Saldana is actually younger than David Oyelowo! They really couldn't find an older actress?

At times the movie was painfully boring, badly paced and perhaps unintentionally funny. 5 out 10.

Nina

Yet another film of a famous person that in reality is just an excuse to show off mental illness. In this case the bipolar condition of Nina Simone.

The film assumes that the viewer already is familiar with her life. I wasn't. I only knew her by having heard a couple of her songs. The start of the film rushes ahead through her life to the very end of her life. But it doesn't start at the end and show flash backs. Well... sort of. It was mostly just a confusing mess and I had no clue what her career was like up to the end (where the film begins). The first concert she does is in a small bar. So as a viewer I'm like, OK, so this is the kind of concerts she had. And then I'm told she is one of the most famous singers. OK, so why is she in a small bar performing if she is so famous? And then somebody says that she should be in a huge concert hall, and not in a small bar. And I'm like, yes, so why isn't she? Please tell me, the viewer. No information.

The film revolves around her (non-romantic) relationship with her nurse/assistant/manager. This is uninteresting. It never goes anywhere and there's very little tension. I suspect it's just badly acted. David Oyelowo plays the assistant. I had never heard of him. So I looked him up. He has a long career of so-so stuff. So he doesn't seem particularly talented. He seems to be established as a middling talent. So it's an odd casting. It seems to me like he just didn't have what it took to make this role work.

Zoe Saldana plays Nina Simone. This is also not particularly interesting. But I don't think it's the acting that's the problem this time. I suspect the problem here is the script. A string of scenes showing a crazy person doing crazy things is not interesting. This is not a comedy. The craziness has to be coupled with her being sensible sometimes. There has to be some sort of balance. Nina Simone in this film goes from being disturbingly weird to being bouncing-off-the-walls-in-a-padded-cell- crazy. She's impossible to like. But she's famous for being a musical genius. She created amazing music and trail-blazed against all odds and conquered the world. This is not shown in this film. Nina Simone in this film is just nuts with no redeeming qualities. It's the stuff that made her famous that I'm interested in. This film provides none of it.

They use the "Angry Black Woman" trope to it's fullest extent. Sure, Nina Simone does have ample reason to be angry. But this character seems utterly consumed by it. It's like she has nothing else going for her in her life.

It would be nice with a film about a historical black person that doesn't focus on how much a victim he or she is. I'm not saying that black people historically haven't suffered. What I'm saying is that, by looking at the movies produced focusing on black people, black history seems to be defined by being a victim and nothing else. I'm starting to find this tedious. And in this film it's especially obvious, since her talents are so down-played. It's all about Nina, the crazy victim.

I learned almost nothing about Nina Simone's music career.

The high ratings must be from people unfamiliar with Nina Simone. The makeup looks like Saldana has bad skin. Saldana's acting is passable. But the film is just boring. Saldana's singing lacks the depth of Simone.

Wow, that was a tough watch. Saldana is an appealing and decent actress within her range, but she's way, way out of it here, and given a script and a character that she simply can't do justice to.

It's rare that actors are asked to play older than their age, and for good reason: everyone can remember what it was like being younger, but can only imagine being older. There's no gravitas or presence to Saldana's performance here, and she can't anchor this muddled, tentative film. Since it's entirely about her, well, you see the problem.

And we have to talk about the blackface. Saying "yeah, but it was required for the role" doesn't make it all right. That's how you get Occidentals playing Charlie Chan or Fu Manchu, or girls with less Native American ancestry than Elizabeth Warren playing Comanches.

One rule for all, no exceptions, please.

I came in with expectations about this film. They weren't particularly high but what I did expect was to a lesser degree the music and vocal styling. Zoe Saldana as Nina Simone missed that mark completely. Unlike Jamie Fox in Ray where he magnificently captured Ray Charles's vocal patterns and musical style, you get none of this with Saldana's Nina. In fact, it doesn't transport you away at all. It's an unpleasant look into Nina's last years of her life, one that you do not wish to fully examine. And then there is the makeup that was applied to Zoe Saldana. It was not a visual look that was welcomed. I don't know if they were trying to capture Nina's appearance but this too was flawed and I go back to Jamie Fox role as Ray. Maybe Zoe Saldana was the wrong choice although I do see her being credited as one of the producers along with David Oyelowo who also has a role in this so maybe this was more of a vanity thing because they did it and figured it was easier for her to play the role. the other thing that bothered me was that they kept jumping from one era to another without any consistency. It was a visual headache to the story that just didn't fit. This was tough to watch.